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Zolani Tete
Zolani Tete (born 8 March 1988 in Eastern Cape, South Africa) is a South African professional boxer based in the UK. He is the current WBO bantamweight champion and the former IBF junior bantamweight champion. Early life and amateur career Tete grew up in the Mdantsane township. He had a rough childhood. His father was a pastor. Him and his brother, Makazole, took up boxing when Zolani was eight. Tete looked up to South African former world champions Vuyani Bungu and Welcome Ncita while in the unpaid ranks. Tete would later be trained by Bungu. He claims to have over 400 amateur fights, only three of which were losses. Professional career Flyweight Tete made his professional debut on May 2006. He won his first 8 fights by stoppage. In his eighth bout he won the World Boxing Federation flyweight title, which he defended twice. Tete earned a shot at a major world title for the first time, beating Richard Garcia on a title eliminator by unanimous decision (118-108, 118-108, 118-110). Tete went on to face Moruti Mthalane for the IBF flyweight title, suffering his first loss with a round 5 technical knockout. Junior bantamweight After the loss to Mthalane, Tete moved up to junior bantamweight. He received another opportunity to fight in an IBF eliminator, but he dropped a majority decision (112-115, 112-115, 113-113) to Juan Alberto Rosas. After a bounce-back win, Tete fought in yet another eliminator but he lost by split decision (113-115, 114-115, 115-114) to Roberto Sosa. Tete seem to befuddle Sosa with his length early on, but as the fight went on Sosa surged and earned the nod. Sosa received a warning due to low blows but there was no point deductions. On November 2013, Tete would fight in a third IBF super flyweight eliminator against former champion Juan Carlos Sánchez, Jr.. Sánchez had lost the IBF title due to coming in overweight against Sosa, thus leaving the title vacant after beating Sosa. The winner would be the IBF's mandatory challenger to the winner of the Liborio Solís-Daiki Kameda unification bout. Tete knocked down Sánchez on round 5, before being dropped himself in round 6. After being knocked down, Tete resorted to excessive holding, losing points in rounds 8 and 9. However, he was able to put Sánchez away in round 10. Solís would beat Kameda, but he also lost his title on the scales, leaving the IBF title vacant. Tete would face Teiru Kinoshita on July 2014 for the vacant title, winning a comfortable unanimous decision (119-109, 119-109, 118-110). After one successful defence, he chose to vacate the title rather than fight mandatory challenger McJoe Arroyo. Tete went on to sign with British promoter Frank Warren on December 2015. Bantamweight ete made his bantamweight debut on 2016. On his third fight at the weight, Tete claimed the WBO interim title by beating Arthur Villanueva. Tete won a wide unanimous decision (120-107, 119-108, 119-108), dropping Villanueva in round 11. Tete was later elevated to full champion by the WBO. Tete defended his title on November 2017, knocking out Siboniso Gonya with a right hook at the beginning of the first round. At 11 seconds, it was the quickest world title fight in history. Gallery Tete vs Frazier.jpeg|Zolani Tete vs Joe Frazier Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Boxer Category:South African Characters